The crappie under my dock have bit all summer long pretty well until dark. After the sun sets they shut completely off.
I have lights but never catch any under them. Do crappie bite at night very often?

Ive done quite a bit of night fishing and from my experience they will set on the outside of the light waiting for an easy meal
hope this helps

I don`t claim to be a Crappie guru but Yes sir they do bite at night under the right conditions. A lot of people like to fish the full moon,waxing,or waning moon I guess it `s a personal pref type of thing but I`ve had some tremendous success under the new moons with a single crappie light.Why you ask? I just think my crappie light has less competition under a moon that`s void and has no lumination. I have noticed that the tiny creatures that congregate under it are greater in numbers than when under a brighter sky.This is on a lake mind you and This might sound far fetched but I`ve caught some gooderns like this on Lake Waxahachie.Give it a think. Docks are another story.

I do a lot of night time fishing at a barge and most always catch fish.I have noticed that the crappie seem to bite in waves, as though they're circling around in the area or new schools are coming in every so often.

Ive had success with both a crappie light and dock lights at night. How close to the water are your dock lights? The reason I ask is because I usually do better fishing docks that have low hanging lights. And again fishing the areas just outside the lit up water. Pitching across the lit area and letting it fall back to you has been good also.

My dock is just a crappie house no boat slip. I catch them good early in the day and the last two hours before dark. The minute the water in the dock has no more daylight in it they are gone.Tons of minnows and grass shrimp under my lights lots of sand bass but no crappie.
Front of hole is 14 foot back is 28.

Have you dropped any kind of structure in your slip?If not I would invest a little time in creating some. It will only increase you chances.

This ^^^ Making and setting crappie condos whether it's willows, bamboo, Christmas trees or pvc is fun and productive. I like bamboo and pvc the best.

I have had mixed results fishing at night for crappie. Sometimes I have tore them up and sometimes I have gotten skunked. I haven't done it enough to figure it out but I do know that the crappie scatter and chase shad out in open water once the sun goes down. If the sandbass are schooled up in the light then its probably hard for the crappie to have time to bite because sandbass are more aggressive. I honestly think that with crappie and lights at night, you have to be in the right place at the right time to really catch them in good numbers.

You are correct! That why I stated "under the right conditions"

k

Yes a lot.
Willows, pvc condos, Christmas trees, structure is no problem.
Believe it or not there is nobody that has a bamboo stand in out little town. But plenty of good willows.

I just came in from the dock and caught a limit in two hours. Had 22 yesterday afternoon. I guess I'll just settle for daytime crappie.

Good for you.

The slips where I have my boat sounds similar in that this past spring as soon as the sun went down the crappie seemed to vanish and it would take several hours to get them to start coming back to the lights and even then it was in small waves and no where near the numbers as during the day. One morning I decided to get up early and stop by before work and it was crazy how much bait and fish had congregated under the lights. New moon or heavy cloud cover nights were definitely much better. Post spawn it was nothing to catch 40-50 fish before work and had one morning probably caught close to 100 fish (there was lots of unders). Found myself setting the alarm earlier and earlier and the fish were always there waiting. However, as soon as there was the slightest bit of light the fish were gone.

Hoping the same pattern is there in the fall. Already catching some fish under the lights before work now. This last weekend they were hitting 6"-2' under the surface. Any deeper than that and the jig wouldn't get touched.

I always had the best luck on cloudy or no moon conditions.

Crappie will shut down at dark but will start coming back around 10:00 or so.

And the fish will be in groups, so the bite is either good or nonexistent.